The More Things Change

It has often been said that nothing stays the same, that the only constant thing in life is change. While that may be true, for better or for worse, change is critical factor in human resource development generally and organizational development specifically. This makes sense because we know that as people go through their lives they change, and since organizations are filled with people they too would change as a result. But HRD is also dealing with the creation of change, when an organization is purposely trying to teach a new concept or implement a new policy. The complication arises when these two changes are occurring at the same time and moving in opposition.

Change can be studied by looking at its core dimensions: depth and tempo. Depth refers to the extent of the change. Incremental change is often planned by an organization to produce improvement and manage the transfer of knowledge most efficiently. Incremental changes are often implemented by OD as part of strategic plan and allow employees to adapt and negotiate their new tasks and working climate. Transformational change is more often seen by individuals and organizational leaders resulting in a paradigm shift in thinking. Transformational change has five core characteristics: triggered by environmental and internal disruptions; systematic and revolutionary; demands a new organizing paradigm; is driven by senior executives and line management; and requires continuous learning and change. This type of change is extreme and may be utilized in reaction to other events or in anticipation of events.

The temp of changes refers to the rate, rhythm or pattern of change that occurs. Continuous change is an endless pattern of modifications and new ideas, which is becoming more the state of norm in businesses today. Episodic change is an occasional interruption from the standard process. While in the past, transformational change occurred only in episodic events it is becoming more commonplace for continuous transformational change due to globalization and technological advancement. This has left both organizations and OD professionals struggling to redefine both change and the change process.

To understand and use change in strategic planning, researchers have defined four types of change.

1. alpha change- this involves change in the variables within a system of thinking without changing the configuration, such as perceiving an improvement in skills

2. beta change- this involves changing people’s perspective about the value of the variables, such as a change in standards

3. Gamma A change- this involves changing the configuration of a paradigm without adding new elements, but subsequently this results in reconfiguring all the variables

4. Gamma B change- this involves replacing one paradigm with another that includes some or all new elements, for example moving from a production driven school of throught to a customer service way of thinking.

Change comes in many forms and the study of change is critical to understand organizational strengths and weaknesses, as well as determining a course for future planning.